What is the right amount of severance for a good nanny who has outrun her course?

[Anonymous]

We need to let our nanny of 6 years go and hire more of a house manager. The kids are in school all day (for almost 2 years now) and I have continued to pay her her FT salary (48 hours a week including OT, based on the schedule she had when our youngest was a baby) even though she is working about half that. She has had a good attitude about doing other things for us (grocery shopping, errands, etc) but she really isnt very good at it and I feel like if I am going to pay someone for 48 hours a week I would like to have someone who can do more of these tasks without constant errors (like forgetting things on the shopping list that I need for dinner - every single time).

All of this is background to say that she served us well when the kids were young but I have also been very generous in keeping her on this long without cutting her salary. I want to give her time to find something else but I am not made of $$. How many weeks should we pay her for after we let her go?

[Anonymous]

Four weeks and give her at least four weeks notice. Be ready and open to answering calls for recommendations promptly (tell your secretary or assistant to put them thru immediately).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Four weeks and give her at least four weeks notice. Be ready and open to answering calls for recommendations promptly (tell your secretary or assistant to put them thru immediately).

Most people don’t have a secretary or assistant and handle their own calls as priorities and time permits. Otherwise, your advice was good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Four weeks and give her at least four weeks notice. Be ready and open to answering calls for recommendations promptly (tell your secretary or assistant to put them thru immediately).

Most people don’t have a secretary or assistant and handle their own calls as priorities and time permits. Otherwise, your advice was good.

+ 2. 4 weeks severance and st least four weeks of notice.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you've been generous already in keeping her around for the last two years.
I think giving her notice this week and then letting her know you're going to start a search and would like her to train the new hire.
If she finds a new position right away then two weeks is enough.
Also I recommend writing a letter of reference that she can share with potential employers so you're not taking too many calls, and offering to be available for a call once she's had an interview and trial.
Good luck

[Anonymous]

Six years! Three months severance pay and a month's notice plus a stellar reference.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a contract that specifies notice and severance? If not, I think it's more notice than severance that is called for, since you've essentially been paying her full-time for a half-time job for the past two years. That's a lot of $$$.

But she definitely needs to have notice to be able to find her next position. Maybe a couple of weeks severance if you want her to train the new person, but I think this might backfire since she does a lot of things wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you've been generous already in keeping her around for the last two years.
I think giving her notice this week and then letting her know you're going to start a search and would like her to train the new hire.
If she finds a new position right away then two weeks is enough.
Also I recommend writing a letter of reference that she can share with potential employers so you're not taking too many calls, and offering to be available for a call once she's had an interview and trial.
Good luck

Have to politely disagree on part of your post. Yes OP has been generous in keeping her around well after she was needed but that was OP's decision and the Nanny enjoyed it. Nanny should not be penalized now. But I agree that OP should give her notice asap so she can start looking in case it takes a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Six years! Three months severance pay and a month's notice plus a stellar reference.

Two weeks of notice is standard, as is two weeks of severance. Give more of both if possible and warranted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Six years! Three months severance pay and a month's notice plus a stellar reference.

Two weeks of notice is standard, as is two weeks of severance. Give more of both if possible and warranted.

Two weeks isn't standard.... it's the absolute minimum.

[Anonymous]

OP kept the nanny for OP's convenience not as a favor to the nanny so stop with how generous she has been to the nanny who only had half a job!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Six years! Three months severance pay and a month's notice plus a stellar reference.

+1

Six years is a long time op. You owe her.

[Anonymous]

Op, one week pay per year as severance is pretty standard. Also standard is 1-2 months of notice. But both presuppose that the nature of the job is changing drastically, or you are phasing out of nanny care.

[Anonymous]

Even when positions have ended after several years, I’ve never received more than a week’s pay as a parting gift.

[Anonymous]

This should be governed by

1. employment law in your jurisdiction
2. your contract with the nanny
3. fairness
4. your desire to maintain good will with the nanny.

If #1 & #2 do not apply, #3 (fairness) would be the aforementioned full-time pay for half-time work (in some cases poorly performed) and a generous notice period. #4 (good will) is if you decide to give her severance out of consideration for her service. NO MINIMUM applies; I would consider it like a bonus or gratuity based on her performance. I would also take into consideration if she bolts early when you give notice and how your new nanny search goes.